Humbug #1 pg. 28, 1957

So talented!

That is a pretty special piece from a very historically significant comic.  Well done and so much better than you recall this image from your formative years.  it might have taken 67 years to find you but it sounds like the art is where it should be now.  

I was hoping I could get some answers from seeing the original (as in "how the heck does he do it") – but no! It's one of those cases where seeing the original almost just adds on to the mystery. All the other Davis originals I've seen have been quite large, the pen and brush work has been big and bold. This, however, is very small, close in size to the published page. So not only is the linework perfect – just look at the smooth transition of values on the tall bald guy's coat, and then contrast that with the young man's coat on the right where the hatching ALSO beautifully describes the texture of the cloth – it's also executed at an intricate scale that almost seems like it shouldn't be humanly possible.